Jenkins Drops Lawsuit; Will Challenge In Senate

GOP Holds 10-seat Majority

BATON ROUGE, La. (AllPolitics, November 17) -- Republican Woody Jenkins, who lost his U.S. Senate bid to Democrat Mary Landrieu, withdrew his lawsuit challenging the election's outcome. But Jenkins will appeal to the GOP-controlled Senate to throw out the results on the grounds of fraud.

Landrieu's 5,788-vote margin was the closest of any Senate race on Election Day, and was Louisiana's narrowest Senate victory in history. With her win, the Republicans' Senate majority stands at 55-45.

Jenkins charges that more than 10,000 ballots were illegally cast, alleging a variety of voting irregularities, including votes attributed to dead people. He told reporters Sunday that he dropped the suit because he was unable to meet the court-imposed deadline, claiming that New Orleans election officials were uncooperative and kept him from collecting evidence of election fraud.

For the Senate to investigate these accusations, one senator must object to Landrieu's seating. Afterwards, the chamber could vote not to seat her at all, forcing a new election.

Jenkin's lawsuit, filed Thursday, had asked the court either to throw out the challenged 10,000 votes and declare the Republican the winner, or to call a new election for December 10.

But neither Jenkins nor his attorneys appeared in court, as Chief Judge J. Michael McDonald had ordered. Attorneys instead faxed the lawsuit withdrawal to the court clerk's office four minutes after the deadline.

Landrieu has said that the lawsuit was based on "unsubstantiated generalities, rumor and innuendo."

"It's time for Woody Jenkins to stop hiding his evidence -- if he has any. He has not provided even one name," said Vance Andrus, a lawyer of Landrieu.

Tony Gelderman, another lawyer on Landrieu's team, suggested that Jenkins should concede and apologize to all the clerks and registrars across the state, who had been working overtime to prepare records for the trial.

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